Let The Mite Killing Begin- Formic Flash

 I started out 28 years ago when Varroa was already on the scene- but really new nothing about it besides the mitecides we were supposed to use- and also, I had the I think some inherent optimism that so-called "science" would figure it out- that each generation had it's bee problem to fight, and this one would pass once the guys in white lab coats and microbiology degrees figured it.

Well, they failed enormously and miserably, and slowly the fairly useless and French Revolution throwback "citizen science" had to take over, with its relentless distorted surveys and inability to offer any insight or help except eventually "whoops! We didn't know the honeybee wasn't from here, now we're all about native pollinators and planting friendly gardens!".

Yet Varroa wins in all of that. Our super hero Randy Oliver seems to be spinning in circles with no progress or report except "don't try this at home without permission", and shifts his advice monthly (its Nosema! No its not! etc etc). Even the gentle and super knowledgable beekeeper and blogger Rusty Burlew has thrown in the towel- she give advice, but does not herself keep bees. Too discouraging.

I'm down to my last stand. A wagon of ten hives forming a circle in a small apiary, with a few outliers. I don't believe in Oxalic, or Formic Pro, or Apivar, or any of the hundred things I've diligently applied to curb Varroa. They have all failed. I get that some people live lucky existences and seem to skirt the problem, they barely do a treatment or two and seem to get by- but that's not been true with me.

So today, ever many years of thinking about it, I started my last ditched effort at making this work. And I am convinced that it's the best option available, but also aware that timing is everything in mite treatments,and I'm not sure I have this right.

I learned about this from a beekeeper in Whatcom, Rebekkah, who forwarded the papers from West Virginia outlining the method, and documenting its success. Even RO  gave it a try, found great promise in it, though left it behind for some reason.

Basically, its using Formic Acid at a manageable strength, with HBH, and a well designed fumigator board, in a 24 hour flash treatment. In addition, I have added the step of removing the queen from the entire equation by pulling her out during the treatment time. As I write, I have a box here with caged queens with a few worker bees in each cage, spending the night in the house.

The ingredients are simple. I've written about it before.  Formic acid, which you buy at 90% and reduce to 50%, HBH (not necessarily required), some queen cages numbered and with dowel plugs, a measuring cup, and some safety equipment for eyes and hands:

To mix,I use this pyrex beaker and mark it at 85 ml. For the solution, I pour in FA to the line, then the HBH to the 100 ml line, then mix it up a little.

Then I have these fumigator boards I made. THey have a metal cover with air gaps and bee passages on the sides...

...and if you flip them over, there is an abosorbent pad under aluminum screen. You pour the solution on this pad and then lay it on top of the upper brood box, after (in my method) having found and removed the queen.

Bees don't love the acid. And you have to block every hole except a small entry hole. Here they are starting to beard on this hive-eventually they'll cover it (other hives had lesser reactions). Tomorrow I expect to see a lot of dead bees and larva, and I'll pull out the frames, and set the queen back in the a candy plug. I'll do mite counts, of course- and in hives with dense capped brood- hope to see this count continue for weeks.

How will this work? I'm not sure. I've done it before, but had severe queen loss, and didn't follow up. I am hoping to try this again in September, if these hives do well and I see a large mite kill.

It's my best guess- and last fight on this.

Day 2 evaluation

Pulling the queens, and then keeping the queens overnight in a cage with 2 or 3 workers worked fine. Super easy when queens are marked and confined to a single brood box with an excluder. Applying the FA and board was super easy, as was closing it all up. Tape would have helped to seal some seams- and general closing it tightly might be a weak point for me- I only had rags. Easy to do better.

When I showed up 24 hrs later to return the queens and get the hives back in order, I was surprised by two things. I have to check back on my experience with this method years ago- but to start with, I saw no dead bees outside the hive- though the grass was tall. Plus- on inspecting the mite boards, I saw very few, in some cases zero, mites.

Neither makes sense to me. Is it possible that there is a low mite count in these hives even after not having done a treatment since January? I very much doubt that, but did not do a count. And how could there not be dead brood out front?

IIt firstly occurs to me that my formic % was too low, or amount. But I did it by the report- 50% (and ttested it carefully) formic, 85 ml plus 15 ml of HBH. Last time I had the opposite problem! What's up?

Maybe I treated with 65%? I'll have to check back.

It will be interested to see if there is a mite drop as brood starts getting opened in the coming few weeks.